September 2, 2015

If there is a sensation—an urgency—that humans crave, it’s creativity. It’s a heart-thumping, mind-bending variable. Creativity is, to borrow a phrase from neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, a person’s “real inmost story.” The state and nature of this story are aspects I enjoy noticing and learning through my series of interviews, as part of my Web-based project Design Feast. I especially enjoy the story of creativity unfold at the annual Cusp Conference.

For the third consecutive year, I have been invited to experience and write about the 8th incarnation of what is simply recognized as “Cusp.” In 2013, a duo of graphic novelists, a sword swallower, an astrophysicist, an architect of habitats in space (outer space), a medical doctor (turned medical designer) and more, presented on this conference’s stage. Last year, a biological anthropologist, a behavioral scientist, a social justice activist, a cyberbullying preventionist, a sex toys innovator and more, shared their distinct focus. This year, Cusp’s cast of speakers persists the sheer diversity of human application, like 12-years-old Lily Born who invented the Kangaroo Cup for people with Parkinson’s disease, Riana Lynn who created supply chain management platform FoodTrace, Samantha White who founded Shakespeare in Detroit, and other risk-takers.

There are many ways to cultivate creativity, particularly in the workplace. The Cusp Conference is a yearly offering of perspectives and projects—deliberately different to help stimulate scenarios of possibility. It motivates the pursuit of making intellectual connections, creative connections, unexpected connections that can influence one’s imagination over time and give shape to, borrowing another apt phrase from Dr. Sacks, “a continuous inner narrative.”

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